Coming Attractions and a Kindle Sales Update

You can look forward to a ton of great articles coming up on this blog. I'm setting up an interview with my pal Allan Guthrie, who has a new ebook out called Bye Bye Baby that is sure to please (it's a grabber and a shocker); I'm going to start commenting on some of my favorite "hard boiled" OTR shows beginning with the Canadian Broadcasting version of "Nero Wolfe" from the '80s; I have a few other good nuggets up my sleeve, so watch this space.

I also thought I would give you an update on my Kindle sales, as that is a constant topic of discussion on this world wide web of ours. For months now my books have been priced at $2.99 and have been doing okay. I've been happy with the results. However, between October and December of 2010, sales dropped to ZERO. What's an author to do? I redesigned the cover and revised the description of Justified Sins, the best seller of my two books, thinking that would help--it didn't--so I gave it away free on Smashwords, and TWO HUNDRED people took advantage of the free download. That was terrific. Two hundred people who might not otherwise give me a try decided to take the plunge. When that offer ended, I advertised on the Amazon forum that both Justified Sins and Reaper's Dozen were on sale for .99.

Sales have taken off, and my blog traffic is up too. Why folks are paying money for books that were offered for free less than two weeks ago I have no idea, but I'm not arguing about it, either. I wonder if the new cover and description of Justified Sins is now helping. And since I'm on the verge of releasing Show No Mercy, a spy thriller and a departure from the bleak hard-boiled crime novels I had previously been focused on (more on that later), this new attention will be very good for me indeed.

So, my indie author friends, it is possible to make a go of this without having any "name recognition". It's still early yet, but I think by the end of this year, when I'll have a total of six ebooks available, we'll be doing very well indeed.

It's an exciting time. Thanks for coming along for the ride!